Violent Crimes Down in Philly: FBI

Preliminary 2012 crime report finds many instances of crime down, while some major crimes were up

The number of violent crimes committed in Philadelphia dropped last year.

That's according to preliminary crime data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI's preliminary 2012 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) found that violent crimes dropped by 415 instances from 18,268 in 2011 to 17,853 in 2012.

Crimes that fall under the category of violent include: Murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

The two major categories on the decline for that period are robberies and aggravated assaults. Criminals committed 8,246 robberies in 2011 and 7,984 in 2012. Instances of aggravated assaults dropped by 207 -- from 8,865 to 8,658, the data shows.

Not all of the categories of violent crimes posted declines, however. Seven more people were murdered in Philadelphia in 2012 -- resulting in a total of 331 murders.

Forcible rapes jumped by 47 incidents. There were 833 rapes reported in 2011 and 880 rapes in 2012.

The overall decline of violent crimes in Philadelphia were not mimicked nationally. The FBI report found violent crimes rose by 1.2-percent nationwide. The increase comes after years of decline. Nationwide, murders also jumped by 1.5-percent year-over-year -- the first increase since 2009.

While violent crimes rose nationally, a lesser amount were committed in the Northeast part of the United States.

In addition to the decrease in violent crimes, property crimes were also down 4-percent in 2012.

There were 2,620 less thefts of property and vehicles last year -- down to 56,997 from 59,617.

Burglaries also declined in by 53 cases in 2012 over the year prior.


Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

Contact Us